Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Ballast Point's new spirit room

Award-winning spirits on display in Scripps Ranch

Place

Ballast Point Old Grove Brewery

10051 Old Grove Road, Suite B, San Diego

The times, they are a-changin’…for the better, if you’re a fan of spirits. With the New Year comes a change in state policy allowing local distilleries to offer samples of their products to customers, and none of San Diego’s spirit conjurers are more excited to show off their wares than the award-winning artisans of Ballast Point Brewing & Spirits (10051 Old Grove Road, Scripps Ranch), who will officially open their new spirits tasting room tomorrow, January 7.

Sponsored
Sponsored
A view of Ballast Point Brewing & Spirits' copper still from the hallway leading to its new spirit tasting room

Much in the way that its distillery and brewery cannot overlap, Ballast Point’s spirits tasting square footage must be separate from its brewery and within its DSP (distilled spirits plant). So, visitors looking for a taste of the company’s rotating assortment of clear and dark spirits may sign up for a tour at the merchandise area east of the beer tasting bar, then wait to be escorted down a hardwood hallway, past a window with a view of a grand copper still (imported from Kentucky), to an intimate, dimly lit speakeasy-style tasting room.

Place

Polite Provisions

4696 30th Street, San Diego

To make room for the facility, Ballast Point’s CFO and brewers gave up their offices, but the company made sure that sacrifice wasn’t in vain. Down to the many minor details, the place is stunning and thematically complete. A heavy wood, marble-topped bar and stamped tin ceiling tiles combine with vintage wallpaper, matching marble rail, and belly bars to form the basis of an interior motif the company describes as "apothecary-slash-old-timey drugstore" — think North Park’s mixology darling, Polite Provisions, but a little more mood-lit and a lot less hipster.

Head distiller Yuseff Cherney scavenged many an antique store for items like an old-school register, ancient books, a scale, and a mortar and pestle. Even the iPod-affixed radio and fire extinguisher are fauxed up to look as though they’ve pulled straight from the Prohibition era. The only overly out-of-place piece of modern technology spliced into the space is a flat-screen TV, made forgivable by its content—a visual walk-through of the distilling process. Given the newness of the spirit tasting experience in San Diego, explaining how that firewater comes into being is crucial.

Ballast Point VP Earl Kight serves one up at the company's new spirits tasting room at its Scripps Ranch facility

Four tour slots will be offered per day at 1, 3, 5 and 7 p.m. The cost per person is $10 and includes six 1/4-ounce tastes. Flights will change based on availability, but Ballast Point will draw from liquors including its Fugu Vodka, Moonshine, Old Grove Gin, Three Sheets Rum, and assorted whiskeys (though the latter figure to be featured less than often than the rest). New varieties are also on the horizon, which will provide additional attractors to what is an already plenty attractive space and a lovely addition to San Diego’s outstanding craft scene.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Reader Music Issue short takes

Obervatory's mosh pit, frenetic Rafael Payare, Lemonhead chaos, bleedforthescene, Coronado Tasting Room
Next Article

SDSU pres gets highest pay raise in state over last 15 years

Union-Tribune still stiffing downtown San Diego landlord?
Place

Ballast Point Old Grove Brewery

10051 Old Grove Road, Suite B, San Diego

The times, they are a-changin’…for the better, if you’re a fan of spirits. With the New Year comes a change in state policy allowing local distilleries to offer samples of their products to customers, and none of San Diego’s spirit conjurers are more excited to show off their wares than the award-winning artisans of Ballast Point Brewing & Spirits (10051 Old Grove Road, Scripps Ranch), who will officially open their new spirits tasting room tomorrow, January 7.

Sponsored
Sponsored
A view of Ballast Point Brewing & Spirits' copper still from the hallway leading to its new spirit tasting room

Much in the way that its distillery and brewery cannot overlap, Ballast Point’s spirits tasting square footage must be separate from its brewery and within its DSP (distilled spirits plant). So, visitors looking for a taste of the company’s rotating assortment of clear and dark spirits may sign up for a tour at the merchandise area east of the beer tasting bar, then wait to be escorted down a hardwood hallway, past a window with a view of a grand copper still (imported from Kentucky), to an intimate, dimly lit speakeasy-style tasting room.

Place

Polite Provisions

4696 30th Street, San Diego

To make room for the facility, Ballast Point’s CFO and brewers gave up their offices, but the company made sure that sacrifice wasn’t in vain. Down to the many minor details, the place is stunning and thematically complete. A heavy wood, marble-topped bar and stamped tin ceiling tiles combine with vintage wallpaper, matching marble rail, and belly bars to form the basis of an interior motif the company describes as "apothecary-slash-old-timey drugstore" — think North Park’s mixology darling, Polite Provisions, but a little more mood-lit and a lot less hipster.

Head distiller Yuseff Cherney scavenged many an antique store for items like an old-school register, ancient books, a scale, and a mortar and pestle. Even the iPod-affixed radio and fire extinguisher are fauxed up to look as though they’ve pulled straight from the Prohibition era. The only overly out-of-place piece of modern technology spliced into the space is a flat-screen TV, made forgivable by its content—a visual walk-through of the distilling process. Given the newness of the spirit tasting experience in San Diego, explaining how that firewater comes into being is crucial.

Ballast Point VP Earl Kight serves one up at the company's new spirits tasting room at its Scripps Ranch facility

Four tour slots will be offered per day at 1, 3, 5 and 7 p.m. The cost per person is $10 and includes six 1/4-ounce tastes. Flights will change based on availability, but Ballast Point will draw from liquors including its Fugu Vodka, Moonshine, Old Grove Gin, Three Sheets Rum, and assorted whiskeys (though the latter figure to be featured less than often than the rest). New varieties are also on the horizon, which will provide additional attractors to what is an already plenty attractive space and a lovely addition to San Diego’s outstanding craft scene.

Comments
Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

20 Best Online Casinos USA For Real Money (2024 List)

USA Online Casinos: Top 20 Online Casino Sites of 2024
Next Article

March is typically windy, Sage scents in the foothills

Butterflies may cross the county
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.